A Post About 5 Monsters That Needs to be Mainstream

Monsters are truly amazing. They are just everywhere, from old legends to Hollywood movies. There are the classic ones, the superstars of the monster world: Dracula, zombies, dragons, etc.

However there are tons of other lesser-known beasts that are worthy to be given a spotlight. Try to dig into any foreign legends and you will discover endless stories of creatures both weird and fascinating. I'm not just talking about Greek tales, or even Norse (though both are good places to start). Here are five monsters from different countries that stuck to my mind:

Krampus

You think it has always been just Santa Claus? Think again. Krampus has a demonic appearance: hairy, black, and goat-like The devilish beast usually accompanies Saint Nicholas on Christmas or Yule season.
The saint is busy with the good children, krampus is responsible for the bad and naughty ones. It is not enough these children couldn't get the presents they've wanted, but Krampus would stuff them into its sack and carry them away to his lair. Presumably to devour them during Christmas dinner. The creature's quite as popular as Santa many many years ago but due to its ugly, demonic image, its celebrations pairing with Saint Nicholas was being discouraged and oftentimes prohibited.

Penanggal

A Penanggal is a Malaysian legend, and is very much similar to their neighbor Philippine's Manananggal, however there a few differences that makes this version worse. Let's construct the image of this creature first. A Penanggal detaches her head from her body, along with her stomach, intestines and lungs. Then imagine that abomination flying all over the town in search for blood. They are usually in love with human flesh and blood, preferably that of a newborn baby, so the creature perches itself on the roofs of houses where pregnant women are sleeping or in labor. It uses a long invisible tongue into the room below and lap up the mother's blood

Nuckelavee

From Orcadian folklores, this horrible monster is actually a Scottish Elf. His breath is so foul it could kill crops, sicken the livestock. He is also responsible for droughts and plague. A Nuckelavee's appearance is both complex and a living nightmare. He looks like a centaur, only he retains his horse head, but a human torso and head grows from its back. It sounds like a normal mix and match of mythical creatures, but what makes this beast as simply creepy is that it has no effing skin.

Huldra

It's origins are from Christianity, it is said that Eve has been washing her children one day, when God came for a visit. Ashamed of the dirty ones, Eve only presented the clean children and hid the dirty ones. Since is, well, God, he knew of what she'd done and cursed Eve, saying since these children were hidden from him, so shall they be forever hidden from mankind. Thus the Hulders came to be.
Now known as a Scandinavian legend, a huldra is said to be amazingly beautiful seductive creature, almost always naked, but sometimes appearing as an innocent-looking milkmaid. However her back is either made of bark or a hollowed out tree, plus she is sometimes seen with a cow's tail. As the story goes, a huldra appears to men and lures them with her beauty into the forest to have sex with her. She is generous to those who satisfy her lust, but could be deadly to those who does not. But either way, a huldra will see the man just as a mate or a pet, even if he could satisfy the woman, he is still subjected to many more multiple couplings which will eventually exhaust him so much it could lead to death anyway.
Often times, she steals human babies and replaces them with her ugly changeling babies

Zmeu

Not very popular. A Zmeu is a Romanian mythical creature, they are dragons, usually with a magical stone placed on it's head. But it is also a humanoid and has legs, arms, and could create and use weapons when necessary, as well as fly in the sky, have supernatural strength and is a shape shifter. So basically a zmeu is a half dragon, half (somewhat) human.
Zmeus also kidnap girls, in the intention of marrying them, however a knoght in shining armor will always rescue these damsels in the stories, so a zmeu remains single and kidnaps more girls.